Comments about ‘Draper land-swap bill is approved’

Silly Utah Rivers Council, Utah Professional Archeological Council and Utah Open Lands. If you wanted the land preserved, you should have said there was a pioneer encampment once located there.

There has been a lot of misinformation on this land swap by people with alternate motives. There are archeological sites on the public lands which will remain public. There are also potential archeological remains on the private land that will become public and therefore protect any ruins.

The public land that will be given to the private developer has been used as a dumping site for years. It's a win for archeology, the river, UTA the developer and residents with no losers.

So whom should we trust on this controversial land-use issue? The developers and their pals, the legislators? Or the Utah Rivers Council, the Utah Professional Archeological Council and Utah Open Lands? Let see, who's most like to have the public's interests at heart? Who's most likely to base their decision on money in their pockets? Hmmm, now THIS is a toughie.

In Utah we seem to do whatever the developers want. We have incredible opportunities and we squander them. There are 2 other places for UTA to build on that are not in sensitive areas, let them build there.

This thing STINKS to high heaven. Diehl should be removed as a trustee and the deal should be voided!

And on balance, who cares about some old archeological site? Why should some old building dictate to everything else? And Phoebe...every interested party has a vested interest, and it all translates to money. The archeological group won't have a place to dig (it's job preservation for them). The Open Lands group has to justify their existence somehow, so it's protecting their single issue purpose. And on and on it goes. These groups are no less implicated than the developers.

I agree with Councilman Stenquist. The misinformation on this issue has astounded me. This really is a win on all sides--the development will be built on the prison landfill (hardly a high-value archaeological resource as has been reported), the archaeological remains will be on public lands (which they are not now) and the river bottoms and trail system will remain intact (with improved access to the trail and expanded preservation of critical areas and wetlands). I'm please to see that the legislators were able to see through the smoke screens that thrown up by people with other motives.

Shame on you, legislators, for once again doing what's best for those who bought and paid for you--the lobbyists and those with big money. I'm so sick of the leaders of this state doing whatever will enrich them and their behind-the-scenes interests. This stinks.

Once again, the legislature does what it can to make rich developers even more wealthy. If the legislature ever does anything in the best interest of the people, it is solely an unintended by product of helping out the wealthy.